Startup Q&A: Chris Jordan, Co-Founder and CEO, Carryr

RTIH: Tell us about Carryr

CJ: We’re on a mission to supercharge the end-to-end delivery experience for fashion retailers and their customers. 

We partner up with the most exciting fashion retailers to give their customers a new, flexible delivery experience - the ability to consolidate and schedule the delivery of every Carryr-powered order from any of our supporting retailers (can even be delivered in as little as an hour after placing the order).

Carryr is not only a flexible delivery option upon checkout, but an extremely powerful omnichannel ecosystem built around a compelling last mile delivery and returns experience, which includes solutions that help retailers fulfil e-commerce orders from stores and even use our delivery option as a customer acquisition tool. 

Overall, this helps retailers increase cart conversion rates and, most importantly, increase customer satisfaction.

RTIH: What was the inspiration behind setting the company up?

CJ: I’ve spent the majority of my career fulfilling customer facing roles in the retail sector, which has given me a deep insight into consumer behaviours along with their wants and needs.

During the time I spent in retail, I also developed an obsessive fascination with last mile logistics. So much so that I decided to sign up to deliver with one of the largest food delivery platforms to deliver meals from restaurants in the evenings - just to get a deeper feel for the experience. This allowed me to discover some core principles that I could apply to the retail industry.

Now, the huge trigger that caused me to quit my job to pursue Carryr in 2017 was when my other half was buying a ton of clothing online, having to wait days then only to miss the delivery and to then stand in that dreaded queue in the post office depot (it was usually me that did the the trip to the post office).

Upon concluding a broken experience, I began asking myself and, annoyingly, everyone around me the following questions: “What if there’s a way where I can just schedule a delivery or return at a time that suits me rather than waiting on the carriers’ terms?” and “If the product I ordered online can be found locally, why can’t I have that one delivered?”

RTIH: What has been the industry reaction thus far?

CJ: Delivery is the last touchpoint retailers have with their customers, yet the experience hasn't evolved as much as the online experience, which has caused a massive decrease in cart conversion for the retailer, losing as much as £35 billion in abandoned carts (36% of abandoned carts are due to inconvenient delivery options), or worse; damaging the retailers' reputation, which can decrease the amount of new customers, customer referrals and repeat customers. 

Consumers are now buying more fashion products online more than ever before and it's not slowing down; they've now been "Primed" (excuse the pun) to expect speed and flexibility. 

More purchases mean more deliveries, more deliveries lead to inconvenient interruptions throughout the day and, ultimately, a bad experience, which we’ve all fallen victim to at some point in time. 

Before Carryr, the delivery experience with fashion retailers has been somewhat fragmented and consumers are now looking for brands that really understand and compliment their fast paced lifestyle, we’re helping retailers do just that.

“Customer demands have been increasingly dynamic in the most recent years and a lot of the infrastructure that retailers rely on is still yet to be optimised to adapt with the speeds of change in customer behaviours”

RTIH: What has been your biggest challenge/setback?

CJ: Since inception, our biggest challenge has been building the full, end-to-end experience from the ground up and not building on top of current carrier systems or even leveraging current carrier networks. 

This means that we don’t just handle the integrations and technology platform, but we also build up our logistics network that’s fully flexible from day one as. If we were to just hand over the job to a carrier company that cannot adhere to the customers’ schedule then customers would definitely be upset with us and the retailer they bought with.

One of the most important factors that led us to that decision was the “service level vs cost efficiency” problem we see in the conventional logistics industry. 

The convention is to take as much volume as possible, at the lowest cost possible and because of this, you see vans with 100+ deliveries to make in a day, none of which can be promised a certain time and often lead to being attempted delivery more than once (which can add up to be very costly).

We start with the end customer, they give us their requirements and we figure out the best way to do it, no questions asked.

RTIH: What are the biggest challenges facing the omnichannel retail sector right now?

CJ: Customer demands have been increasingly dynamic in the most recent years and a lot of the infrastructure that retailers rely on is still yet to be optimised to adapt with the speeds of change in customer behaviours. This includes inventory management and fulfilment destinations not being used to their maximum potential.

We’re excited to see further development in both e-commerce platforms and inventory management systems to come together to unify both e-commerce and retail destinations to become a holistic view.

Right now, through the Covid-19 pandemic, fashion retail has been dealt a rough hand. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I believe that the next phase in the omnichannel cycle is to evolve the store offering to one that serves multiple purposes, such as becoming an e-commerce fulfilment destination, featuring micro studios for local live streaming, implementing explosive theatrics in merchandising and to host community events for further brand engagement. 

It should now be seen as a multi-purpose, omnichannel utility rather than a siloed sales channel.

RTIH: What's the best questions about your company or the market asked of you recently by an investor or a customer?

CJ: “Why don’t you operate a marketplace like Deliveroo?” - we have been asked several times. The answer is that fashion e-commerce is more than two decades more advanced than restaurant e-commerce and they have much more of a reliable source of traffic and infrastructure already to make sales, whereas restaurants never really had that. 

We want to strengthen retailers’ conversion and brand. Plus, the obvious being that there’s marketplaces out there that already do a fantastic job.

“Why just fashion, why not everything else?”. Fashion (clothing, shoes and accessories) is the number one e-commerce category in the world and we believe that if we really focus on the behaviours, products and expectations in the fashion industry that we can unlock so much more potential for retailers and consumers across the globe.

RTIH: What can we expect to see from Carryr over the next 12 months?

CJ: We’re currently working solidly on our offering to some of the most loved and respected retailers in the country and, of course, for their customers, of which you’ll be seeing big announcements very soon. 

In the near future, we’ll also be expanding into more cities around the UK and Europe and ultimately become a powerful omnichannel ecosystem for retailers and the go-to delivery option for fashion consumers - we’re becoming a real fashion statement.